Before and After
by aicornduong
Summary: Sollux and Karkat have been together for a while, before and after what happened with Gamzee, but for a moment, Sollux sees a change in Karkat and he worries.


**Just a spur of the moment story.**

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><p>There was nothing that Sollux enjoyed more than irritating Karkat. In a friendly manner of course. He logged onto Trollslum and opened a chat window with the crabby troll to engage in their daily ritual.<p>

twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

TA: 2up vanta2

CG: WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT CAPTOR.

TA: nothiin much ju2t wanted two ha22le you for ab2olutely no rea2on a2 alway2. you 2hould be u2ed two thii2 by now KK.

CG: GOD THOLLUX. NITHE OF YOU TO THINK TO THPEAK TO ME. I GREATLY ENJOY THAT ANNOYING LITHP OF YOURTH. HEARING YOUR INABILITY TO THPEAK LIKE EVERYBODY ELTHE THAT'TH NORMAL ITH A GREAT PLEATHURE.

TA: let go of your keyboard for a 2econd.

CG: WHY?

TA: ii wanna try 2omethiing out.

CG: NO. FUCK YOU.

TA: ju2t let go you ornery 2on of a troll.

CG: WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO?

CG: I AM YOUR LEADER AND I GIVE THE COMMANDS. YOU CAN'T FORCE YOUR LEADER TO DO ANY

CG: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

TA: iim ju2t 2aying iif you dont want two break iit ju2t let go. jegu2 youre makiing liife hard for your2elf.

CG: ATWOUEJSZIKV

Using his psychic abilities, he pulled Karkat away from his computer and across the room, setting him down in front of himself. Sollux was straddling his seat backwards and rested his head upon folded arms over the back of the chair.

"What's that about my lisp? Great Knight of Blood?" he teased.

"Nothing," Karkat replied simply.

He mirrored Sollux and straddled his own chair, to face away from him. The psionic troll easily conquered his action by using his abilities to roughly turn the chair around, eliciting a loud scraping noise and revealing Karkat's displeased face.

"I hate you," he said.

"At least I don't talk like Eridian. His wavy accent pisses me off."

"I agree, but everything about that son of a fuckass pisses me off. He is the only one who can piss me off so much."

"Even me?"

"Not you. You piss me off the most."

To any ordinary troll, their interactions would seem as if they were heading towards the caliginous quadrant, however, this was quite the contrary when it came to positives and negatives. This was their routine acts of matespriteship and their companions always had to roll their eyes when they witnessed the scene.

"We all know that's a lie, Karkat," said Sollux. "Come on now, thpeak now or forever hold the truthhh!" he insisted, exaggerating his lisp even more so. He poked Karkat's cheek

Karkat grabbed his hand and pulled him forward so he could whisper in his ear.

"You're lucky your lisp is so damned cute," he hissed, then letting him go. Sollux grinned a sharp toothed smile and closed the gap again, resting his forehead on Karkat's.

"That's what I thought," he chuckled.

Karkat's eyes looked deeply into Sollux's, involuntarily getting lost in the galaxy they beheld behind his shades. The twin-themed troll noted the blush on his cheeks as he pulled the other's chin up a bit and pulling them even closer, not letting their eye contact break until the last moment.

It was strange how they started out their romance.

At first, it was agreed that the two of them were sitting down in the pale quadrant since they obviously shared a moirallegiance. Sollux easily calmed Karkat when he set off on one of his rage fits and Karkat always managed to steal away the mind honey before Sollux resolved to eat it and blast Eridian to oblivion.

However, their moirallegiance developed a peach-ish hue over time, though Karkat ignored the fact by saying it was how pale relationships developed after a while. If the fact had been true, it had Sollux worried about Karkat's relationship with Gamzee. They seemed to have another moirallegiance heading in a similar direction. However, he lost all cause for worry when Karkat became the auspitice for the unsteady beginning of Gamzee's blooming flush for Tavros. In that while, their moirallegiance continued to deepen in color until it became unsteady and spilled over because the bro ship couldn't carry it anymore.

The two of them had to smooth over some edges and round out the overall of the result before they boarded a whole new cruise together. They became so flushed, they didn't know what else to do but let it grow.

Sollux was relieved to see that it only ever deepened and it seemed Karkat viciously fought any dark development between them (despite their petty quarrels and such). He was always ass deep in bullshit with Eridian in that shit. As far was black romance would go, Sollux wanted nothing to do with it.

"Goddammit, Sollux…" Karkat muttered. Sollux could feel his breath ghosting his lips and it drove him crazy, so he gave a light tug and allowed himself to enjoy a kiss with his matesprite.

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><p>If there was anything he could sense after his blindness, it would be Karkat. He would randomly, but methodically, stumble around without the walking stick gave him as an excuse to find and grope his matesprite. Not that he needed one with the ornery troll, but it made it okay for the rest of the group, seeing as it was their signal to shield their eyes from the scene about to unfold. Some serious making out was about to happen.<p>

But this time, they were in Karkat's respiteblock doing their matesprite things. Matesprite things like Sollux allowing his hands to roam over his counterpart, allowing his fingers to leave trails in interesting places… His fingers replaced his eyes, feeling in the stead of seeing, yet at the same time, feeling for the sake of touching.

During one particular kiss, Sollux felt Karkat latch onto the front of his shirt and pull him down for a rough kiss. Their lips mashed together in a painful, yet pleasing manner and he was going to revel in the pain of the mildly bruising sensation, but to his surprise, Karkat worked his mouth open and through his parted lips, his tongue slipped in. Sollux took the backseat and let Karkat explore as he wished. His appendage swept over his teeth, but he lingered over the new spaces and gum holes in his mouth, flicking at them lightly.

When he reached the final space, he pulled away with a sad smile. Sollux felt it form when their lips parted.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Hnn…" was his reply.

That meant Karkat didn't really wanna talk about it, but he felt like he should and he was currently thinking over whether he should or not. Sollux really thought this was adorable, since the candy-blooded troll always ended up telling him anyways, so the inner conflict was always unnecessary.

"Come on," Sollux insisted, "do we need to sit on a pile or something?"

"No! What's with you guys and your goddamned piles?" Karkat asked.

Sollux shrugged and laughed a bit and rested their foreheads together. When he still had eyes, he'd do this and stare into Karkat's eyes. When they were still pale, his eyes would stray off to the side because Sollux unnerved him by doing it, but as they became more flushed, he would stare back into Sollux's dual colored eyes with a red blush dusting the skin of his gray cheeks.

Now, he couldn't see into Karkat's eyes, he could only feel the other troll let go of his shirt to hold his face, his thumb running over the ring of his eye. He leaned into the touch and off of his forehead, but not letting his face stray from where he thought Karkat's eyes were. He didn't even have eyes anymore like Terezi did. He wondered if that unnerved Karkat in a bad way.

Soon Sollux's lips were frowning too.

"Karkat, tell me what's wrong."

Karkat didn't sigh, he wasn't exasperated. He was sad.

"I'm sorry…"

Now this scared Sollux a little bit. Karkat never apologized unless it was serious.

"What for?" he ventured.

Karkat was silent for a little bit, and normally Sollux would be okay with it because his counterpart was brooding all the time, but now he was unnerved too. He didn't want to break up and it sounded like this was where it was headed.

"I don't know," Karkat admitted. "I miss your eyes. They were so… grr don't laugh! They were beautiful… I liked them a lot. Fucking Eridian. Son of a fuckass was lucky Kanaya got to him first."

Sollux let out a sigh of relief. They weren't breaking up. He laughed despite Karkat's request because he was being so adorable. He could feel the heat off of the red blush in front of him. How he'd kill to see it again… In any case, he could sense something else was bothering Karkat and he needed to get it off his chest. More prodding was in order.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"I'm sorry about your teeth too," Karkat said, his hand moving lower and his thumb sliding over Sollux's black lips. "It was my fault you lost them…"

Sollux thought about this for a second. Then he laughed, not holding back because the thought was funny.

"Why should you be sorry about it?" he asked. "I'm okay with not having them. I don't have a lisp anymore now that they're gone."

"I miss your lisp too," Karkat replied. Sollux could imagine the involuntary pout on his lips the red leader would always have at times like this. "I liked your lisp and I thought you'd be mad at me for accidentally knocking your teeth out."

"Pfft." (Sollux was glad he could do that now without spit flying everywhere.) "You were scared senseless. It's okay. If was either run or be killed and I'm glad you saved me, even if it mean making me tumble down the stairs with you. If it weren't for you Gamzee… probably would have done me in." He trailed off, knowing what he accidentally dug up.

"Gamzee… oh God, Gamzee…"

The hand dropped from his cheek, most likely for the red leader to hide his face in. Sollux was right in his assumption as he began to hear muffled cries.

"Shit, it's okay. Goddammit, Karkat, don't cry!"

Sollux reached out and wrapped Karkat in a tight embrace, hating himself for bringing the unwelcome memories back fresh into the other's mind. Why the hell did he have to go and do that for? He knew that Karkat felt terrible for having to kill his best friend…

"Karkat, it's okay. It's okay," he assured. "It was my fault that I lost my eyes because I challenged the dweeb. It's not your fault I lost my teeth and my lisp because you were scared. And Gamzee… you did what was best for all of us. You saved us from him because that's what you needed to do as leader… It's okay…"

"God I miss him too," Karkat muttered. His arms slowly made their way around Sollux's waist and he returned the embrace, seeking the comfort that he was readily given.

"It's okay Karkat. You've got to troll up now," Sollux insisted, squeezing him a bit tighter. "Gamzee wouldn't want you tripping out like you are now."

"Yeah, that's true. I'm sorry."

"Stop being sorry, you asshole," Sollux reprimanded. "I said everything was okay."

Karkat laughed, successfully having been cheered up, though he was still justifiably saddened.

"I guess I should be grateful for having you at least," he said. "If Gamzee and Tavros were as flushed as we are, I wouldn't blame him for snapping when he found that Vriska killed him."

"Does that mean you're gonna go batshit crazy like he did?" Sollux asked.

"Fuck no! That just means I'll go insane if I lost you, so don't die!" Karkat barked.

"Your wish is my fucking command, fuckass leader," replied the blind troll. He kissed Karkat's forehead, much to his embarrassment, and laughed.

And they spent the rest of their waking session doing more matesprite activities.


End file.
